Granholm proposes new library
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MSU could become a partner in the creation of a new state center aimed at promoting a knowledge-based economy through technology, entrepreneurship and science.
Proposed Monday by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the Michigan Center for Innovation and Reinvention (MCIR) would replace the Michigan Library and Historical Center in Lansing. Under a plan submitted by MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon, state library holdings would be moved to the MSU Libraries and the MSU Museum would be consolidated with the State Historical Museum as part of the new center.
The proposal of the center follows an executive order issued Monday by Granholm that abolished the state’s Department of History, Arts and Libraries to balance the state’s budget. It is projected to save $2 million annually. The MCIR would serve as a “visible symbol” of the future of Michigan, Simon said in a letter to Granholm.
“We appreciate the opportunity to share in developing a vision and ‘road map’ for a modern facility that would serve the needs of a modern Michigan,” the letter said.
State librarian Nancy Robertson said in an e-mail that although it is too early to determine the effects of the abolishment, library staff look forward to finding the best way to continue providing library services.
“The Library of Michigan has, since its inception in 1828, provided great benefit to residents, libraries and government employees, and we plan to build on that record of service,” she said in the e-mail.
A partnership between MSU, the city of Lansing and the state in the creation of the MCIR could optimize the use of the Michigan Library’s facilities, Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said.
“President Simon and her team have laid out a very exciting vision,” she said. “Her vision is really a starting point for us to look at how can we maximize the use of that center in ways that would offer citizens new opportunities.”
Benefits of the center would include preparing Michigan’s citizens for success in the knowledge economy, encouraging achievement and improving the state’s K-12 education system, Simon said in the letter. The vision of the center is future-oriented and centered around the benefits of collaboration, university spokesman Terry Denbow said.
“This is all about transformation of the region and of the state and using the collective clout of the state’s educational and cultural institutions to be part of that transformation,” he said.
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She does, does She?
(07/15/09 10:05pm)Report
Maybe she will do something useful for Michigan afterall.
Katharine Moore
(07/29/09 9:03pm)Report
As a genealogist, and having worked for a number of years in a university library, I deeply disagree with Michigan governor, Jennifer Granholm’s recent executive order which takes drastic action against the genealogical collections in the Library of Michigan. It would disband and separate to the four winds the collection which has taken decades of work to accumulate in one place. It would defund the collection all together, transfer the stewardship to the Department of Education (and we all know how fabulous a job THEY already do) and possibly make access to all genealogical records impossible to obtain.
You may not realize it, but Pornography is the #1 use of the Internet. Pornography shatters the family. Genealogy is the #2 use of the Internet. Genealogy is the work of seeking out and binding together the family. If as a taxpayer, I am forced to fund welfare and health care, then at least some of my money ought to go where I actually can get some use out of it! Michigan receives FEDERAL tax money matching the money that they use to fund their genealogical record collections! That’s MY money!!
A nation that does not know it’s history is either bound to repeat it – in terms of the bad historical patterns – or, in terms of the good, bound to abandon it. I think it’s worth tax dollars for my children and grandchildren to know who they are and where they came from. With more than one line on both my and my husband’s families going back many generations in Michigan, I need MICHIGAN census records, MICHIGAN birth certificates, MICHIGAN death certificates, MICHIGAN marraige certificates, MICHIGAN land ownership records, MICHGAN probate records, MICHIGAN cemetery records, MICHIGAN local historical records, etc to know that. With the “hobby” of genealogy being such a goose-chase in the first place, it would be a HUGE pain if I had to go from one poorly run building to another to find everything, especially when everything is so well organized and in one place at the current time in the Library of Michigan.
Does it not occur to ANYONE that part of the progressive/socialist agenda is to break apart the family, and if people can’t trace back their families, or don’t give a care for their roots, then all the better for the agenda? What exactly is Jennifer Granholm’s intent, here? Does it just boil down to the personal level? Does Michigan’s genealogical information mean so little to Jennifer because, her ancestors’ genealogical records are safely ensconced somewhere in Canada?